Best cordless vacuums for 2022 – CNET

Say hello to Dyson’s latest and greatest stick vac, the $700 Dyson V15. As the company’s flagship cordless vacuum, the V15 has a sky-high price tag to match. It’s by far the most expensive machine in our test group. Like its predecessor the V11, the V15 ripped through our suite of vacuum tests with ruthless competence. 

This cordless stick vacuum didn’t just outperform competitors from other brands. The V15 demonstrated more suction power than the Dyson V11, the previous cordless vacuum champion. The V15 also achieved these cleaning performance results on our most difficult trial, sand. 

It was able to remove 88.4% of test sand we placed on midpile carpeting. The V11 managed 71.6% on the same test. More impressively, the V15 pulled 95.3% of sand particles we dropped onto low-pile carpeting. That’s a lot better than the 78.4 percent the V11 was able to muster here. The V15 wasn’t phased by pet hair either. No matter if it was vacuuming across hardwood, low-pile, or midpile carpeting, the V15 barely left a tuft in its wake.

A few other features help set the V15 Detect apart. One is the vacuum’s “Laser Slim Fluffy” cleaner head. Designed specifically for hard flooring, it shines a green laser out onto the floor ahead as you clean. Its purpose is to highlight dust and other small bits of debris otherwise hard to spot with the naked eye. The system does work and we observed plenty of dirt we’d normally miss. One drawback though is that the laser isn’t visible under strong indoor lighting or sunlight. 

Also interesting is a readout on the back of the vacuum. This report lists the ratio of dirt collected by particle size. Other than that, and a battery that’s easier to remove, the D15’s bagless vacuum design remains much the same. That’s a good thing since we found both models’ dustbins easy to empty. 

Bundled with the vacuum are seven different cleaning attachments. Including the Laser Slim Fluffy, you get a High Torque cleaner head, a Hair screw tool and crevice tool, just to name a few. All this adds up to why the Dyson V15 Detect is currently the best cordless vacuum cleaner around, if spending lots of money is no barrier. 

Read more about the Dyson V15.

If you’d like to own a Dyson vacuum but you’d rather not spend top dollar, consider the Dyson V8 Absolute hand vac. This step-down cordless model is a few years old, but it still has powerful suction and performs like a champ. On our floor-cleaning tests, the V8 came in a respectable third. In our test group, only the Dyson V11 and Shark Rocket Pet Pro scoured floors better than the V8.

On a hard floor, the vacuum managed to pick up an average of 98% of the sand we dropped. For low-pile carpet, that average fell to 68.3%. The average slipped further across midpile carpet, though remained at a respectable 52%.

Pet hair didn’t faze the V8 hand vacuum much either. The stick vacuum pulled hair away from midpile and low-pile carpets completely. It did fail to remove a small amount of dander on hardwood. Additionally, some fibers became wrapped around the vacuum’s brush roll. But the washable filter was handy.

And similar to the V11 Torque Drive, the V8 Absolute upright vacuum comes with a generous assortment of add-ons. That includes gadgets for dusting, a crevice tool for reaching into a tight crevice, a soft cleaning head for bare floors, a motorized brush roll for grabbing ground-in dirt and debris, and a docking station for charging the battery. So for those who’d like to own a Dyson-brand stick vac for a little less cash, the V8 Absolute is worth a look.

Read our Dyson V8 hands-on first take.